Spatial decision-making support for geoheritage conservation in the urban and indigenous environment of the Auckland Volcanic Field, New Zealand

Abstract

It is imperative today to make geoheritage conservation an essential part of all environmental standards and operational procedures. This is because geoheritage conservation secures the preservation of in situ geoheritage elements especially in urban environment such as Auckland. Geoheritage in Auckland is strongly associated with both indigenous culture and textbook geology of monogenetic volcanism, and it can play an important role in hazard forecasting and risk mitigation. To date there has been a lack of policy or any planning tools based explicitly on the current geopreservation inventory. Here we present an approach for supporting policy making informed by a spatial multicriteria analysis that has long been used in environmental decision, supported by multi-layer mapping. A systematic literature review was undertaken to define the most accepted assessment criteria used in geoheritage evaluation. We identified 6 criteria for the base spatial layers of our analysis, highlighting the most suitable areas for geoheritage conservation. For cultural conservation we used available archaeological shape files, indigenous land ownership data and elevation data (the volcanic cones had multiple roles in the life of first settlers, the ancestors of the Māori). Geographical Information Systems (GIS) multi-objective land use planning is an effective procedure for achieving complex planning and preservation objectives. It allows for outcomes based on quality data and followed by sound analysis, while minimising compromise and conflict between geoheritage, social and cultural values.